Back On The Streets
by hundredtimes
Summary: Bolin and Mako have a chat after going back to their old way of life to hide from Amon.


Bolin tried to always be the happy force of nature that he was when he was younger. When he would see Mako's eyes lighten and the weight on his shoulder's lessen just a little. Bolin never learned to be mature like Mako, brave like Mako, adult like Mako. He never had to be. He needed to be lighthearted and fun and naïve, because that was what Mako needed him to be.

Mako was trying to heat water for boiling. It was fast approaching dinner, and water would be the base of any street gruel, as they both knew well. "What did they manage to find tonight?" Bolin asked, genuinely curious, and excited about the prospect of eating something, while pulled from a dumpster, that was heartily made and thoughtfully shared.

He remembered the days on the streets of Republic City, when an apple that hadn't been bitten into was a luxury and also not a common occurrence. The idea that the homeless population of Republic City was more than happy to take them back into the fold, to Bolin, was a good and gracious thing indeed.

Mako immediately dropped his hand, and Bolin saw his eyebrows knit in repressed anger. "We shouldn't be here." Was all he said and though Bolin had a feeling he knew exactly what Mako was referring to, he pretended he didn't. It was better to get Mako to talk about these sorts of things. If Bolin led on that he knew exactly what was troubling Mako, his brother would never have to actually talk through his problems. With Bolin always being so unobservant, Mako was always forced to explain things and now was as opportune a time as any.

"Well where else would we go?" Bolin knew it was a perfectly reasonable question given the circumstances. With Republic City falling to the equalists, the council missing, and Tenzin heading far away to keep his family safe, the bending brother's connections to the underbelly of Republic City came in handy. It offered them a safe haven, a place to eat to sleep, and a society that would not betray them. The outcasts fended for each other: a close-knit community full of drifters and peddlers, and the occasional orphan turned success story.

Mako looked up, eyebrows still knit, but a look in his eyes Bolin hadn't seen in years. Not since Toza found them on the streets, fighting for the Triple Threats. It was a look of just… loss. "We aren't a part of this anymore, Bolin. We don't have to fend for ourselves any more. We don't have to worry where our next meal is coming from, or what we'll have to do to get it." He sounded like he wanted to say more, but Asami walked by.

Asami with her mansion, and her indoor swimming pool, and her racetrack behind her house. And her father who was giving equipment and supplies to the equalists. Asami who had never had to live on the streets, and who had vomited the first time she learned where her meal had come from. Asami who barely ate anything because the idea that it was scrounged from dumpsters was too much for her stomach to take, and she couldn't swallow it down no matter how hard she tried, and try she did. Like Bolin had told her, eventually she'll be glad for it once they run out of nearly perfect produce to offer her instead and every night she tried again, with the same results.

As Asami walked by, she peaked into the giant pot, and both brothers noticed the immediate relief on her face at the sight of nothing being cooked. Bolin couldn't help the jealousy and anger at her face. But he kept it inside, knowing she had lived a different life from them. "We have to be a part of it now, Mako. It's better this way anyway." When his brother looked to him confused, Bolin continued, "how would she know who you really are if she had no idea where we came from?" There was more he wanted to say. Something eloquent about how they were just story of triumph over the odds for the papers or how a record, juvenile or not, never looked good to most girls. But he knew his point was made so he didn't press the matter.

He knew Asami would get used to having to live this way, and that Mako would have to get used to the idea that the two most important women in his life: his girlfriend, and the Avatar, would know their secrets. They would know where they came from and what their life used to be. It would just have to take time and Bolin was never naïve enough to think that love was all that someone needed to survive. But he was also never naïve enough to think that it was unnecessary either.


End file.
